Goalsetting

As of June 1st, I will have been CrossFitting for a year. With my impending anniversary, I’ve been thinking a bit about where I’ve come and where I’d like to go. Since last summer, my strict press has nearly doubled. My deadlift has actually doubled. I’ve gone from band pull-ups to eight strict or twenty-some kipping– though I’m not sure if I can count the latter as entirely unbroken since I do weird half-swings between every two or three kips. I conquered my fear of box jumps and heights rope climbs. I’ve begun to string together double-unders in clusters of ten or twenty… managed pistols, handstand pushups, and switched from a 10lb wall ball at an 8 ft target to Games-standard 14 lbs at 9 ft. Actually, typing this list in itself is pretty rewarding. But the point is that I want to figure out where I want to go from here. I think I’m going to continue my strength emphasis through the summer. Here are my goals for the end of the summer (~August sometime…):

1.5x bodyweight squat (did bodyweight for three sets of five across this morning and it felt light… again hoping not too far)

85 lb clean and jerk (right now doing 5×3 at 75, but so much of this is technique-based, that I’m not sure how far I have to go…)

Skill:

Muscle-up (not sure how far fetched this is…but I can pull chest-to-rings and can dip on the rings. I should work a bit more on strength in both movements, but hopefully most of what I need is to master the turnover)

Smooth out my kips so I can link them more fluidly in all kipping movements (pull-ups, knees-to-elbow, toes-to-bar)

Butterfly pull-ups

Life:

Discover the hiking trails in this area!

(If I’m to be a responsible scholar, I should probably think about the non-CrossFit goals like completing my novel revisions and assembling a comps reading list for my PhD… but that requires activating the half of my brain that’s dormant right now)

After August, if I meet my strength goals, I’d like to start working on my endurance again. I’m addressing my strength problems now because it’s very obviously my greatest weakness. But I think, just due to my size and build, it may always be my weakness and once I establish a foundation for that I’d like to cultivate my strengths so that I can be at least the tiniest bit competitive. That goes to bodyweight exercises and endurance. When I first started, the one advantage I had was just that I didn’t stop moving… not because I was masterful at anything or more physically adept than anyone, but because I’m stubborn like that. Unfortunately, flailing skilllessly around wasn’t that useful, so we’re working on strength now. Hopefully this will eventually translate into more dextrous, powerful flailing 😉

I think, theoretically, my ability to persevere should make me an okay runner if I can rehab my IT band and strengthen my legs. So… hopefully I’ll continue to build that explosiveness throughout this strength period and then work on my ability to sustain it in the fall and winter. Granted, this scheduling is not altogether ideal. I’d much rather be running right now, while the weather’s lovely, but there’s pretty much no point for me to work on endurance while my strength has so far to go.

Right now I’m a little irked that, just as I’m about to reach PR territory in these lifts, I’m going to leave on vacation. I mean, one can only be so irked about vacation, but I have no idea what 3 weeks without access to weights will do to my strength gains. I hope to do a 10% reset (decreasing lifts by 10%) when I return and progress back up from there… I welcome any other suggests if this doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Yesterday was a rest day. I went to the gym and rolled out and jogged a few 800m loops. Again, I’m reminded of how much my endurance is suffering because 800m didn’t used to get me winded– especially not at a light pace. But… I’m reminding myself that it’s a sacrifice I’ve chosen to make to address greater weaknesses in my fitness.

Today’s strength work was:

Back Squat: 3×5

Press: 3×5

3 sets of strict pull ups to failure (8,7,6)

Now I’m going to do some reading about material rhetoric until tonight’s striking class. I’ve considered cutting striking from my schedule because it falls on heavy lifting days, but I enjoy it too damn much that I just can’t. Fortunately, the WODs are usually fairly short, and I try to pace myself through them. I know striking is a bit of an anomaly in the CrossFit world and that a lot of gyms actually don’t offer striking, so I’ll write a longer post explaining it next time. In short, it’s MMA-meets-CrossFit. I call it “stress relief for CrossFitters.” Our first class, the Cyborg noticed that I brought a different type of intensity to these workouts, and I consistently find that I naturally adopt that “intensity” when I’m told to hit something… (remember the always angry post?)

I’ve noticed that some people tend to set tangible, concrete goals and work towards those while others just progress casually. I used to shy away from articulating my goals for fear that I wouldn’t hit them… but I’m accepting that, even if I fall short, they give me something to aim for. And I’m not naturally gifted enough to intuit what will help me progress and what will not… What about you? Let’s hear some goals for the summer. Click that comment box!

After years of stalking the periphery of the CrossFit blog community, I’ve decided to add my voice to the fray. The Basics: – I am a graduate student, writer, writing instructor, and Crossfit Coach in Central Pennsylvania – I have been CrossFitting since June 2011, when my box, CrossFit LionHeart, first ... Continue reading →